[kriggio824]

I hope, I am posting this in the right forum.

I am new here, but have been viewing for a few years when things go wrong or I need more information.

This past saturday I completed a coolant flush on my 03 Focus SE with almost 200k (auto trans). Took the car for a run to get the coolant flowing and engine to temp. About 4 miles in, car jerked (felt like I got hit from behind) and stalled out. Tried to restart. Ran for about 2 minutes really rough and died out again. After this I couldn't get the car restarted. Had it towed back to my house to diagnose.

Only thing I found was the ignition coil was only firing 2 cylinders (2 and 4). Sunday, I had the car towed to a local shop, where I replaced the ignition coil. Car now runs normally, or so I thought. So it didn't' jump timing.

I got in the car to drive it home and again, 2 minutes after car reached normal operating temp, stalled out. I managed to limp the car back to the shop.

I can start the car. It runs normally in drive, reverse, and neutral. As soon as I put the car in a forward gear (1,2,D) it hesitates and dies.

Mechanic looked at it today and can't figure it out. I should note that it is not throwing any codes of any kind (per mechanic). I had no codes saturday or sunday either.

 

[sailor]

Moved to General Tech Chat

Welcome to FF

 

[amc49]

Look at anything to do with engine control that got wet from the coolant flush..........a messy job can give you grief forever there. WHICH EXACT ENGINE will help you much, 3 there.

 

[kriggio824]

Yeah stuff got wet like you said, it's the 2.0l zetec vin 3. Mechanic still has no clue. Could it possibly be the ecu?

 

[amc49]

ecu is inside car...................................not likely

 

[2005.ST]

My guess is fuel issues. It has enough fuel to idle but it needs more to move ahead, that's when it stumbles/dies. Fuel pump? When was fuel filter last changed?

 

[amc49]

Any water/coolant down in spark plug wells?

 

[kriggio824]

No coolant in the spark plug wells.

Mechanic said the harness to the ignition coil. Common with zetec for that to fail. I replaced it with a pigtail
From ford.

That seemed to make the car more drivable but still has some issues where it still wants to stall when I come to a stop. That I am guessing is a fuel issue. Cause I can hold rpm up with brake on and it doesn't stall. It still does shift a little hard, and there is hesitation when acceleration.

 

[Leora83]

Check your PCV hose. Also a common Zetec culprit...tends to suck flat at the lower bend and cause issues with poor acceleration and warm stalling. I've also heard of the rubber turning porous with age and leaking. Relatively cheap and easy fix on the '03 if you can get Ford to sell you the right one.